


Our Corner of Paradise

by hopeless_eccentric



Series: I'm Baby [2]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Adoption, Canon Non-Binary Character, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Nonbinary Juno Steel, Other, Parenthood, Post-Canon, Some Humor, Stand Alone, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, idk how to tag that i invented a child for plot reasons but there's a kid, juno and nureyev are both disgustingly smitten and i love it, just that domestic happy ending im praying for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27341890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeless_eccentric/pseuds/hopeless_eccentric
Summary: Peter Nureyev was a force to be reckoned with, and yet he dragged Juno back to bed every morning insisting that they cuddle for just a moment longer. His teeth flashed like the fangs of a predator, and yet he pressed soft kisses to the back of Juno’s neck while he cooked and always tried to drag him into a slow dance while the eggs burned on the stove behind them. He commanded a room with ease, and yet he never commanded a room more than when reading a picture book to their adopted daughter.Free commission for an anon on tumblr!!
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Series: I'm Baby [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996534
Comments: 22
Kudos: 107





	Our Corner of Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all!! just as some housekeeping, this is technically a sequel, but still works as a standalone
> 
> Content warning for blood mention

Peter Nureyev had always been a fearsome individual, and Juno couldn’t help but love him for it. He felt something seize in his chest whenever Nureyev’s lipstick shone like blood from a predator’s mouth or when his knife swished and twirled in his hand like the brush of a painter. He could command a room when dripping in a million creds worth of stolen diamonds, just as he could strike fear into the hearts of anyone with the misfortune of incurring his wrath. He was beautiful in the same way the shine off the back of a snake was beautiful, and yet the wave of warmth he made Juno feel in his chest was unimaginably soft.

He was a force to be reckoned with, and yet he dragged Juno back to bed every morning insisting that they cuddle for just a moment longer. His teeth flashed like the fangs of a predator, and yet he pressed soft kisses to the back of Juno’s neck while he cooked and always tried to drag him into a slow dance while the eggs burned on the stove behind them. He commanded a room with ease, and yet he never commanded a room more than when reading a picture book to their adopted daughter.

Nureyev’s face would always light up in a thousand different shades as he worked his way through all the different voices the book required. He would contort his face and voice to summon trolls and dragons and monsters from the air while Diana clapped her little hands together and giggled. Nureyev would try and fail not to laugh along with her, for sometimes, that fierce smile that claimed his face would contort his mean and villainous voices into something all too sweet.

Even after a year of practice, Juno had to cling to the rare instances where he was sure that his parenting was working. He dreaded the advice he had heard about never feeling like one had succeeded in parenting, though those moments Diana looked up at him in shock halfway through a book, he parroted the expression, and Nureyev laughed his lungs out, made him feel surer about their little family than anything else. 

“My dear,” Nureyev wheezed after one such occasion. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit with us? This is quite the riveting read.”

Juno rolled his eyes.

“You’re making fun of me,” he accused.

“I would never,” Nureyev pretended to be scandalized. “Diana, vouch for me.”

“Guh,” she supplied.

“See?” Peter scoffed. “Nonsense. Your mother is slandering me again.”

“Sure,” Juno snorted. “Sure I am.”

“If you’re positive, go ahead, stay over there,” Nureyev huffed, sounding like an overdramatic actor about to feign a swoon. “Miss the most gripping tale of a two-headed bridge monster I have ever read.”

“How many stories about two-headed bridge monsters have you read?” Juno teased.

“At least four,” Nureyev shrugged. “But this is by far the most gripping one.”

“I can’t believe you.”

“Well, Diana loves them,” Nureyev protested.

“She can’t even speak Solar yet,” Juno returned with a raised eyebrow. For as much as he hated pausing their books for long, the look of faux-offense slashing through the prior softness of Nureyev’s face was worth every second.

“She likes the pictures,” he replied indignantly.

“Right,” Juno snorted. “Don’t let me stop you two again.”

“I won’t,” Nureyev sniffed, though his upturned nose quickly turned into a scrunch as he hid a laugh behind his hand and attempted to press forward with the narration. “The Tiniest Knight was off on another adventure. He travelled over hill and vale, and—oh, dear.”

Juno sat up when Nureyev’s face fell, having scanned onto the next page.

“What’s up?”

“You see, the two-headed bridge monster has two talking heads,” Nureyev began slowly, though a devious grin had begun to creep across his face. “Usually, they talk at different times, but this seems to be the first installment in the Tiniest Knight series where the two-headed bridge monster has spoken with both heads at the same time.”

Juno groaned.

“I know what you’re gonna ask.”

“And?”

“I’m not doing a two-headed bridge monster voice with you, Nureyev,” he huffed.

“I would hate to keep Diana waiting,” Nureyev protested. “The poor thing’s probable getting impatient with all these pauses.”

“You are not doing this to me,” Juno protested.

“What might I offer you in return?” Peter entreated. “Please, love, I think it’s only fair that our darling daughter, the light of our lives, the third piece to this precious little family of ours hear her favorite book series correctly.”

“She won’t know the difference,” Juno groaned. 

“Dear,” Nureyev began. “My darling partner, my wife, the mother of our child, the second head to my first head of my two-headed bridge monster—”

“Fine,” Juno grimaced as he stood from his chair, wincing at the few too many joints that cracked in protest. 

He squeezed onto the couch at Nureyev’s side, and upon being greeted with a warm arm around his shoulders and a kiss to his cheek, wondered why he hadn’t done such a thing earlier. Nureyev beamed like the lady in his arms had placed the sun in the sky, single-handedly giving light and life to dozens of planets. Juno knew well he could never look in the mirror and see what made Nureyev’s face soften and their daughter’s eyes sparkle with delight, but he knew the responding warmth in his chest was probably something similar to that feeling.

“Where do I start?” He tried and failed to say in a faux-annoyed tone.

“Right here,” Nureyev replied, gesturing with the same finger he used to point at various pictures and words when he read. “Now, where were we?”

“Something about—”

“Shh,” Diana cut Juno off. 

“And somehow, you two aren’t related,” Juno grumbled, though he shared a furtive grin with Diana as Nureyev continued.

“The Tiniest Knight was off on another adventure. He travelled over hill and vale, and after a short break to visit his friend Queen Looking Glass—”

“Who’s that?”

“Well, you would know if you listened to the last three books instead of being starstruck in my general direction,” Nureyev teased, interrupting his own glare to press a brief kiss to Juno’s lips before he could even begin to protest.

“Your daddy’s a sap,” Juno snorted.

“After a short break to visit his friend Queen Looking Glass,” Nureyev persevered indignantly. “The Tiniest Knight came across a big, long bridge. It stretched over a fast and dark river filled with sea monsters and strange plants.”

Juno couldn’t help a laugh when Nureyev dipped into a dramatically grave tone.

“Hush, this is quite dire,” Nureyev hissed. “The Tiniest Knight knew he couldn’t swim across the river, so he prepared to cross the bridge. He was about to take his first step when out of nowhere—this is you, Juno—a two-headed bridge monster popped out.”

Juno sighed.

“Are you sure about this?” He grimaced.

“Juno, can’t you read what it says? Because the two-headed bridge monster has a line, and it is certainly not that,” Nureyev pretended not to grin.

“Fine,” he groaned, mustering up a voice that was half as strange as one of Nureyev’s usual characters. “What are you doing on our bridge, tiny knight?”

“Dear, you need to wait for me,” Nureyev protested. “The two heads speak at the same time. That’s why both heads have speech bubbles.”

“I’ll count down then,” Juno grumbled. “Three, two, one. What are you doing on our bridge, tiny knight?”

Juno prepared to make a crack about Nureyev going strangely high for the voice whereas Juno had gone low, though he couldn’t find it in him to make a single complaint with Diana giggling delightedly.

“See, Juno?” Nureyev chuckled in tandem, carefully rebalancing the book so he could ruffle his daughter’s curls without freeing the arm that was already holding his wife close. “We should have started doing this far earlier. You’re doing such a wonderful job, love.”

“Whatever,” Juno snorted, and pretended a grin wasn’t also spreading on his face. “Let’s see what happens to this knight guy.”

“Was that excitement I heard?” Nureyev teased.

Juno tried and failed to wrestle his smile into a glare. When that effort failed, he laughed.

“Shut up and keep reading.”

**Author's Note:**

> im somft
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading!! Make sure to SMASH that kudos button and leave a comment down below!!
> 
> Find me on tumblr @hopeless-eccentric or on twitter @withane22 !!


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